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Sly Cooper
Sly Cooper is a series of platform stealth video games for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita. The series was developed by Sucker Punch Productions for the first three games, and then it was passed on to Sanzaru Games while Sucker Punch continued work on the Infamous series. The first three games were remastered into high-definition for the PlayStation 3 by Sanzaru Games, titled The Sly Collection. Sanzaru released the fourth game in the series, Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time, on February 5, 2013. A CGI animated feature film based on the first game in the series is in development with currently an unknown theatrical release date. A television show based on the series is currently in development scheduled to premiere in October 2019. The series follows the adventures of Sly Cooper, an anthropomorphic raccoon and master thief, along with his two partners in crime, Bentley the turtle and Murray the hippopotamus, all of whom are pursued by Sly's love interest, Inspector Carmelita Fox. The series has spawned two comic books and a variety of spin-off games, including Bentley's Hackpack by Sanzaru Games. Sly Cooper himself has become one of the most popular of the Sony video game characters, and has appeared in other Sony games such as cross-overs PlayStation Move Heroes and PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. Setting The world of Sly Cooper is a version of the real world that is populated by anthropomorphic animals, with film noir and comic book motifs. The focus of the story is of Sly Cooper, a young adult raccoon and the latest descendant in a line of master thieves who pass down their expert techniques from generation to generation using the "Thievius Raccoonus," a book which contains all the Cooper family's secrets and tricks. While the Cooper family has accumulated a massive amount of wealth through their thieving ways, Sly places greater value on his friendship with his two partners, Bentley, a turtle and the brains of the gang, and Murray, a hippo who acts as the brawn and the getaway driver of the team van. The trio, known as the Cooper Gang, performs elaborate heists all over the world, often for the purpose of taking down large and dangerous groups of criminals, as the creed of the Cooper Clan is to only steal from other thieves. All the while, they are pursued by Sly's love interest, Inspector Carmelita Fox of Interpol. Games ''Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus'' Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus, also known as Sly Raccoon in European countries, was released in 2002 for the PlayStation 2 platform. Sly must recover his family's "Thievius Raccoonus", a book listing all the special thieving skills his family has collected over several centuries, which was stolen by a rival gang, the Fiendish Five, led by Clockwerk, a giant mechanical owl. Meanwhile, Sly and his gang must keep ahead of Interpol's Inspector Carmelita Fox, who promises to one day capture Sly and put him away for his crimes. ''Sly 2: Band of Thieves'' Sly 2: Band of Thieves was released in 2004 for the PlayStation 2. In this game, a series of mechanical parts from the destroyed Clockwerk have been stolen from the Cairo Museum by the Klaww Gang; Dimitri, Rajan, the Contessa, Jean Bison, and their leader Arpeggio. Together, the parts could be used to revive the defeated Clockwerk; separately, they each have special functions and are used for the various schemes of the individual gang members. While Sly and his gang follow these leads, they are pursued by Carmelita and her new partner, Constable Neyla, who are after both the Cooper Gang and the Klaww Gang. ''Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves'' Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves was released in 2005 for the PlayStation 2 platform. Sly has learned of the Cooper Vault, a gigantic store of the wealth that his family has accumulated over the years. To get in, however, he must defeat a villain known as Doctor M, who has taken over the island where it is located to try to break into it, with many failed attempts. Sly must regroup his old partners and recruit new members, defeating a variety of new villains along the way, in order to succeed at reclaiming his family's history, all while still on the run from Carmelita. This game also has some levels that can be put into 3D mode and the PS3 version in The Sly Collection allows the full game to be played in 3D. ''Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time'' Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time was officially announced during Sony's 2011 E3 Keynote, and was officially released on February 5, 2013. Sly Cooper and the whole gang return with an epic brand new adventure for the PlayStation 3 and the PlayStation Vita systems. The pages of the Thievius Raccoonus are disappearing and Bentley, now keeper of the ancient book, must round up the gang and save the Cooper Clan legacy from being destroyed forever. With Bentley's newly invented time machine, the gang and Carmelita travel back in time to stop the various henchmen of the main villain, Cyrille Le Paradox, who is determined to replace the Coopers as the new master thief of the world. Along the way, the gang teams up with several of Sly's ancestors, all while Sly must deal with the aftermath of Carmelita discovering that he had faked his amnesia at the end of the previous game. The game was developed by Sanzaru Games, the same development team behind The Sly Collection, instead of Sucker Punch Productions, who turned their focus to the Infamous series. If players unlock the game's secret ending, a clip is shown that hints at a potential future installment in the series, but on November 14, 2014, Sanzaru Games released a statement that they are not developing a future game. Reception The series as a whole has been well-received, with primary praises being directed towards the games' art style and the stealth gameplay, and the criticisms being the length of most of the games' stories. Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus was critically acclaimed upon release, despite fairly poor sales. GameSpot's review, giving it a 7.8/10, stated that "The game has a fantastic sense of style to its design that is reflected in everything from the animation to the unique use of the peaking fad, cel-shaded polygons." However, it criticized the length of the game by saying that "The main problem is that just as you're getting into a groove and really enjoying the variety seen throughout the different levels, the game ends. "Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine gave it a perfect score of 5/5, stating that "There's a pleasant old-school feel to Thievius Raccoonus; the enemies are merciless but a bit stupid, and the platforming challenges come on strong and ramp up steadily in difficulty as the levels go by." The game ultimately sold about 400,000 copies in its release year, and it was later re-released as one of Sony's "Greatest Hits". Sly 2: Band of Thieves received even more critical acclaim, ultimately becoming the highest-rated game of the series. It earned an 88% on both GameRankings and Metacritic, and with GameSpy ranking it as the #23 greatest PlayStation 2 game of all time. Though not as highly rated as the first two games, Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves was also well-received, with an 84% on GameRankings and an 83 on Metacritic. Despite the anticipation after an 8-year hiatus, Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time was, on average, the lowest-rated game of the series despite still ultimately receiving positive reviews. Its highest rating came from Game Informer, which gave it a 9/10 and thus called it the best game since the original. IGN, giving it an 8/10, summarized that despite the "ridiculous load times, occasionally frustrating gameplay and some bizarre, archaic motion controls, Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time is a worthy game to add to your library" as it "harkens back to a different time in gaming while modernizing the experience for a new generation." GamesRadar gave it a 4.5/5, similarly criticizing the "lengthy (but infrequent) load times" and "cliffhanger ending", but saying the good points were "stellar presentation" and "excellent level design." It is the lowest-rated game of the series on Metacritic and GameRankings (with a score of 75 on both sites), GameSpot (with a 7.5, just below the first game's 7.8), IGN (with an 8.0, just below the third game's 8.1), and Eurogamer, where it was the first game of the series to receive a score other than 8/10 (instead receiving a 6/10). Others ''The Sly Collection'' ''PlayStation Move Heroes'' Another game announced at E3 2010 was PlayStation Move Heroes, features Sly and Bentley, along with Jak and Daxter and Ratchet & Clank, in a crossover title; the game uses PlayStation Move. It was released March 22, 2011 in North America. ''PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale'' Sly Cooper appears as a playable character in the crossover fighting game PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. In the game's arcade mode, Sly finds that several pages from the Thievius Racconus have been stolen, and begins battling the other fighters in attempt to locate them, including a rival battle with Nathan Drake. The Sly Cooper version of Paris also appears as one of the game's stages. Additionally, Bentley assists Sly with his Level 3 Super attack, Murray appears as an unlockable minion and as part of Sly's Level 1 Super attack, and Carmelita appears as a downloadable minion and stage hazard in the "Alden's Tower" stage. ''Bentley's Hackpack'' Bentley's Hackpack is a collection of the various hacking mini-games found in the main campaign mode of Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time, with many more levels, challenges, and prizes. It was developed by Sanzaru Games and was released for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita simultaneously with Thieves in Time. This game is also a part of Sony's "Cross Buy" initiative, allowing purchasers of the PlayStation 3 version of the game to receive a free copy of the game for the PlayStation Vita via the PlayStation Network. The game was released for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, iOS, and Android devices. It received 7/10 from Destructoid and 73/100 from Official PlayStation Magazine Benelux. Characters Major characters Main Article: Sly Cooper (character) * Sly Cooper (voiced by Kevin Miller) is a antiheroic young adult gentleman thief raccoon that is part of a long line of master thieves who specialize in robbing from violent criminals and never innocent people, making them vigilantes. Early in his life, he witnessed the savage murder of his father at the hands of a group known as the Fiendish Five, who then stole his family's Thievius Raccoonus, which holds many of the Cooper clan's major thief moves. He was forced into an orphanage, where he met his best friends, Bentley and Murray. Over his years in the orphanage, the three pull off multiple thieving tasks, and soon, Sly decides to carry on the Cooper legacy by making the modern day Cooper Clan. Sly is nimblest of the gang, so he is sent out the most on missions, therefore making him the most played character. He uses a hooked cane, a family heirloom, as a multi-purpose tool. Sly is cunning and extremely athletic, and can perform feats such as walking on wires, landing on small points, sliding on vines, and falling from great heights while sustaining less damage. He can also use disguises as an advantage to get across normally inaccessible areas easily. * Bentley (voiced by Matt Olsen) is the brains of Sly's gang. He is a turtle who is skilled with computers, gadgets, and explosives, and generally helps with reconnaissance and mission-planning while Sly is out in the field, making him the de facto leader after Sly. In Sly 2, Bentley decides to help out in the field, but, later on, his legs are injured under the jaws of Clock-La, so he is forced into a wheelchair, which he handily equips with gadgets; he has since become more relaxed and confident in his abilities and himself. It is also stated that he co-constructed a time-machine along with his ex-girlfriend, Penelope, which serves as the key object in the fourth game. He is the current guardian of the Thievius Raccoonus, having been entrusted to him by Sly. *'Murray' (voiced by Chris Murphy) is the muscle of the Gang and Sly's full-time wheelman and part-time burden, in charge of driving the Cooper Gang's van to various locations. As a large pink hippopotamus, he is amazingly strong. He often ventures to the field on missions requiring such strength. When Bentley is injured in Sly 2, he blames himself and leaves the Gang to the Australian Outback, looking for a more peaceful state of mind, but eventually returns when Bentley is attacked by Italian crime mob leader Don Octavio, one of the Cooper Gang enemies. It is stated that he has developed a more serious personality, though he remains a happy-go-lucky hippo. *'Inspector Carmelita Fox' (voiced by Roxana Ortega in Sly 1, Alesia Glidewell in Sly 2, Ruth Livier in Sly 3, Grey DeLisle in Sly 4 and PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale) is a member of Interpol, as well as Sly's rival and love interest. She is a vixen who has her mind set on capturing Sly and his crew, but also demonstrates romantic feelings for him, which Sly often uses to escape capture at the last minute. In the fourth game, Carmelita begins to help out the Cooper gang by aiding them in recovering the disappearing pages of the Thievius Raccoonus. This is when she, herself, begins to soften up and develop feelings for Sly. She uses a shock pistol as her weapon of choice, which contains powerful blasts and a target lock. *'Dimitri Lousteau' (voiced by David Scully) is a French iguana who speaks in slang. He started out as a young painter whose unique art style was heavily criticized and rejected by the artistic community, forcing him to turn to forgery before opening a night club on the west side of Paris. His first role in the series was as a supporting villain in the second game, as the first member of the Klaww Gang to be defeated by the Cooper Gang. He later returned in the third game, beginning his role as a supporting protagonist after he joins the Cooper Gang to help them with the Cooper Vault job. He returns for a much smaller role in the fourth game, left with the duty of guarding their Paris hideout and the Thievius Raccoonus while they travel through time, and thus only appears in the cutscenes. Recurring characters *'Clockwerk' (voiced by Ross Douglas) is the main antagonist of Sly 1 and an integral part of the story to Sly 2. Clockwerk is a giant owl who is centuries old, initially fueled by his hatred for the Cooper Clan and jealous of their thieving reputation. Determined to outlive the Coopers and eventually wipe them all out, he replaced his body with machinery so that he could live much longer than any normal being. He was first defeated in the Krak-Karov Volcano in Russia by Sly at the end of the first game, but his body survived the lava and was placed in the Cairo Museum, where it was stolen by the Klaww Gang, setting up the events of Sly 2. Although Clockwerk himself does not actually appear in the second game, the parts of his body are the driving force behind the Cooper Gang's actions, taking down the Klaww Gang to retrieve all of them and ultimately destroy them. But the parts all ultimately end up in the hands of the Klaww Gang's leader, Arpeggio, and Clockwerk is rebuilt before Neyla joins herself with the Clockwerk frame to become "Clock-La." However, the new Clock-La was short-lived, and defeated shortly afterward by Sly and Carmelita. *'Muggshot' (voiced by Kevin Blackton) is a massive bulldog one of the supporting antagonists of Sly 1, featured in the second level. He grew up as the runt of the litter, regularly picked on by the bigger dogs. He eventually decided to work out in order to grow as strong as possible so that he could defeat all the bullies and never be picked on again. However, due to being entirely focused on brawn, he conversely did little to advance his knowledge and is thus notoriously unintelligent. He was defeated by Sly in the first game and arrested, briefly seen in issue #2 of the comics as an inmate at Heathrow Prison, before returning for the third game, where he was a supporting villain in the third episode. It is revealed that after escaping jail, Muggshot became a highly trained and lethal pilot in the annual ACES Competition, run by the Black Baron, where his team was the runner-up in the previous year and current year. Bentley deduced that, in order for the Cooper Gang to have a better chance at beating the Black Baron, Muggshot had to be removed from the competition. Thus, Bentley tricked Muggshot into running into Carmelita, who defeated and arrested him. He returned once more in the animated promotional short for the fourth game, "Timing is Everything," where he stole an antique golden watch, but was once again thwarted by the Cooper Gang and arrested by Carmelita. *'The Panda King' (voiced by Kevin Blackton) is a large panda and one of the supporting antagonists of Sly 1, featured in the fourth level. He grew up fascinated with the art of fireworks, but when he attempted to present his own fireworks to the noblemen, they rejected him due to his poor social status. He gained revenge by using fireworks as tools for destruction, and ran an extortion ring of robbing small villages under the threat of burying them alive in avalanches caused by fireworks, before Sly defeated him. Later, when Bentley determined that they needed someone with knowledge of more powerful explosives for the Cooper Vault job in Sly 3, he recommended the Panda King. Sly at first vehemently refused - as the Panda King had been involved in the brutal murder of his parents - but Bentley convinced him that there was no other choice. The Panda King agreed to join them if they first helped rescue his daughter from General Tsao, who had kidnapped her and planned to marry her. They succeeded, and after the Cooper Vault job, the Panda King returned to China. *'Penelope' (voiced by Annette Toutonghi) is a Dutch mouse, one of the supporting protagonists of Sly 3, and one of the supporting antagonists in Sly 4. Bentley eventually discovered her online while researching potential pilots and mechanics that the team might need for the Cooper Vault job in Sly 3. She challenged them to impress her by defeating her boss, the Black Baron, only to find that Penelope was the Black Baron. Defeated and exposed, she joined the gang and eventually formed a romantic bond with Bentley, after initially being attracted to Sly. However, she turned against them in the fourth game after she came to believe that Sly and his values of "honor" were a bad influence on Bentley, believing that she and Bentley together could rule the world through weapons design and trade. Thus, she joined forces with Cyrille Le Paradox, with the promise of eventually defeating Sly and getting Bentley all to herself. After her second disguise, the Black Knight, was exposed, Bentley was initially devastated by her betrayal, but eventually came to terms with it and defeated her in combat, using one of her own mechanical suits against her. Although she was initially arrested and placed in a maximum security prison like the rest of the villains, she was the only one who escaped, under mysterious circumstances. Bentley notes in the epilogue that she has been committing a wide variety of crimes all over Europe, leaving her calling card at the scene of each crime, and that he has also been receiving mysterious postcards from her, hinting at her possible return in a future installment. Common gameplay elements The games are primarily a third person platform game. The player controls Sly or one of his companions through many missions of several levels, relying mostly on stealth to avoid encounters and alarms while collecting treasures or other items. Sly is very agile, and is able to use many of the features of the architecture for stealth, indicated to the player by a blue glow, explained in-game as a visible manifestation of Sly's "thief senses." For example, Sly can perch on the top of sharp points, climb up pipes, sneak along a narrow ledge, walk across a tight rope, or use his cane to swing from hooks. Sly also uses his cane to defeat foes, although it makes noise that may attract other foes. He prefers to use sneak attacks when possible because of his little endurance. Due to his heritage, Sly has a number of special moves that he learns through the games that can also increase his stealth or speed, or allow him to eliminate foes silently. The player also may play as Bentley with his gadgets, or Murray with his strength, and many minor companions in the third game. There are also mini-games scattered throughout the gameplay. Each game is broken into a series of heists, and to accomplish the heist, Sly and his gang must complete several sub-missions. In the first game, each sub-mission was located on a level accessible from the main heist level, while the second, third and fourth games used a nonlinear, open world approach to have various missions located around the same large level. There is typically a boss fight at the end of each heist as the conclusion to the mission. Graphics and technology The first three games were built using Sucker Punch's proprietary engine SPACKLE (Sucker Punch Animation and Character Kinematics Life Engine) with aid from the engine first created for the 2001 racing video game Kinetica. SPACKLE was first used on the Nintendo 64 title Rocket: Robot on Wheels. Comics Sly Cooper and other characters from the games were also featured in two comic books published in 2004 and 2005 by GamePro Magazine and DC Comics to promote the release of Sly 2: Band of Thieves and Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves respectively. Both books are used to transition the story from one game to the next. Issue #1 acted as a story between the first and second game, apparently taking place sometime within the 2-year span between them. The plot consists of two flashback stories and one present story. One is a flashback to the Cooper gang's first taste of thief work as children at the Happy Camper Orphanage (successfully stealing cookies from a greedy sitter), and the other detailing the first time Carmelita and Sly met, when the then-new constable Carmelita was assigned to protect the diamond of an opera star during a performance. Although Carmelita catches Sly and ties him up in the janitor's closet, Sly escapes. However, he sees Carmelita being berated by her boss, Chief Inspector Barkley, for the failure, and although he originally planned to steal the diamond himself, he decides to instead help Carmelita. Thus, when the diamond is actually stolen by the singer's manager Pierre, Sly trips him and knocks him unconscious, leaving him for Carmelita to claim as her own capture, thus earning her Barkley's respect. In the present storyline, Sly and the gang devise a plan to crash the engagement party of Dimitri Lousteau and a wealthy art collector named Madame D'Oinkeau, and steal D'Oinkeau's prized sculpture, the Venus de Whalo (a parody of the Venus de Milo). They succeed, but Carmelita stops Sly on a bridge over a river. Despite her holding her gun on him, he remains relaxed and engages in conversation with her, during which the two relay to each other their pasts and their opposing points of view. Sly then escapes by jumping off the bridge, and although Carmelita at first thinks he has drowned, it is revealed that he landed on the deck of a boat passing underneath, with Bentley, Murray, their van, and the sculpture all on board. Issue #2 takes place after the events of Sly 2 and leads up to the events within Sly 3. The story is broken into four parts. The first part consists of Sly finding a member of his father's gang, McSweeny, in a maximum-security prison due to an invitation. McSweeny, an anthropomorphic, super strong walrus tells Sly of a massive vault on a remote island and its location which contains the accumulated treasure of all the Cooper family members stating it as Sly's inheritance. Part two details Sly and Murray breaking into a hospital to rescue the injured Bentley from the authorities, though at the end, Murray demands that Sly flee with Bentley while he stays behind to deal with the officers. Part three consists of Carmelita reviewing footage of Sly and Murray's attempt (with Bentley notably absent) to steal the map to the Cooper Vault's location from a Venetian museum. But Sly later breaks into her office while she is asleep and steals the vault map from under Carmelita's nose. The final part takes place at the Cooper gang's home in Paris, with Sly reviewing what is needed to get to the vault, while Bentley works on arming his wheelchair with a wide array of gadgets and weaponry to help Sly in the field. Murray returns after his escape and informs the others that he is leaving the gang and disappears to parts unknown. Film adaptation Production on a Sly Cooper film originally leaked in 2012 when a NeoGAF user discovered listings for a number of Sony Interactive Entertainment franchises in a film financing database. The project was officially announced by producer Brad Foxhoven, of Blockade Entertainment, on January 28, 2014. Sly Cooper is Blockade's third adaptation of a Sony video game series, after Heavenly Sword and Ratchet & Clank. Alongside a teaser trailer, the initial announcement revealed that Ratchet director Kevin Munroe and animation studio Rainmaker Entertainment would be helming the movie set for release in 2016. Also like Ratchet & Clank, the film is financed by Film Financial Services with lead investor Jiangsu Broadcasting Corporation from China along with Rainmaker, with international representation by Cinema Management Group. Commenting on the film's production, Asad Qizilbash, senior director of first party games marketing at Sony stated: "As one of our most storied and fan favorite PlayStation franchises, we are excited to see the story of Sly premier on the big screen for the first time. "We have a great partnership with Rainmaker and Blockade Entertainment and we're looking forward to seeing Sly reimagined in a full-feature movie to offer both fans and newcomers alike a chance to become reacquainted with one of our most beloved heroes." Series creator Sucker Punch Productions is involved with the film. David Wohl, vice president of development at Blockade Entertainment and producer on the movie, was quoted as saying the film won't be an origins story: "Sly and the gang are already together, though they are far from being so great at what they do." The story will focus on Sly, Bentley and Murray, but Carmelita and Clockwerk will also be included. Unlike prior incarnations of the franchise which used cel-shading, the film is going for a contemporary CG art direction. Foxhoven stated that "the global film market can lean towards pure CG animated films. As much as we love the cel-shaded look of the game, we felt that it would not be held up in the big screen collectively." He also said that working with the creators of Sly Cooper would help the movie's look "remain true to the artistic style of the characters and world." At Wondercon 2016, Munroe stated that the film had yet to enter production and that he doubted it would be released later that year, but was "standing by, waiting to jump on top of it. I'm just waiting for the phone call." On October 26, 2016 he revealed on Twitter that he hadn't personally worked on Sly Cooper in over a year and a half. Munroe later became attached to other projects. Following the poor box office performance of the Ratchet & Clank adaptation, Cartoon Brew editor Amid Amidi expressed doubt that Sly Cooper would ever be completed. In September 2016, Michael Hefferon, president and chief creative officer of Rainmaker, said that due to Ratchet's failure, the company would have to reevaluate the timing, release plans and budget for Sly Cooper. In 2017, Rainmaker left the project. Television series On June 14, 2017, Sony announced that they would be developing a Sly Cooper television series alongside Technicolor Animation Productions.http://www.ign.com/articles/2017/06/15/sly-cooper-animated-tv-series-in-the-works The series will consist of 52 11-minute episodes, with half scheduled to premier in October 2019, and the remaining in July 2020, though the broadcast network has yet to be determined. References External links * Official Sly Cooper Website * Sucker Punch Productions * Sanzaru Games, Inc. * Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus (PS2) * Sly 2: Band of Thieves (PS2) * Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves (PS2) * The Sly Collection (PS3) * Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time (PS3) * Official "Sly Cooper" Movie Website Category:Platform games Category:Sly Cooper Category:Stealth video games by series Category:Video games developed in the United States Category:Video games featuring anthropomorphic characters Category:Video game franchises Category:Video game franchises introduced in 2002 Category:Sony Interactive Entertainment franchises